July wasn't a stellar month for hiring in the US healthcare sector, with fewer jobs added in ambulatory care, hospitals and nursing facilities compared with a month earlier. Last week, the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace in almost four years.

"Homebuyers should feel a bit more confident today after the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment situation report for July stated that the unemployment rate edged down", Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American, said in a press release.

■ Average hourly earnings rose by 7 cents to $27.05.

Hospitals added 6,800 jobs in July, 36% fewer than the 10,600 new jobs added in June, a month that represented a massive hiring spike from sluggish May growth.

The unemployment rate has now dipped below 4 percent for the third time this year.

Revisions added a total of 59,000 jobs to payrolls in the previous two months, according to the figures, resulting in a three-month average gain of 224,000.

"It appears to be that the strength of fiscal stimulus measures are outweighing any kind of effect of trade tensions", said Wright from iCIMS. But many potential workers are still on the sidelines, and Congress has an opening to help.

Martha Gimbel, director of economic research at Indeed.com, noted before Friday's report that in the first half of 2018, the average monthly increase in jobs had even exceeded those in the comparable periods of 2015 and 2016. In comparison, nondepositories employed 339,600 people 12 months earlier and had a downwardly revised 341,200 workers on their payrolls in May of this year. Business and consumers are optimistic, suggesting solid hiring is likely to continue.

Hary Bottka, senior vice president at Randstad Sourceright, which manages hiring for clients in the manufacturing, financial services and health care industries, says companies are increasingly thinking about converting contract workers, over time, to permanent employees.

Overall, there were almost 5.5 million people in July who wanted a job but weren't counted as unemployed, which is a drop from over 5.7 million a year ago.